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The first Western contact on record is attributed to British Captain William Raven of the whaler Britannia, who was on his way from Norfolk Island to Batavia (now called Jakarta), in 1793. It is very likely, however, that the discovery and name goes back to the London ship Loyalty, which was on a Pacific Ocean trading voyage from 1789 to 1790.

The people of the Loyalty Islands are of mixed Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry, with a small European minority. The population numbered 17,436 in the 2009 census, a 7.9% reduction from the 22,080 in the preceding 2004 census. In 2014 the population grew to 18,297, an increase of 4.9%.[1][2] Several thousand more Loyalty Islanders live on New Caledonia, especially in Nouméa, the capital, and in the mining areas of the main island. The chief export of the Loyalty Islands is copra.